Ephesians 4 and 5 give instruction to the believer in regard to his behavior. He is told to quit following after the dictates of the culture around him and, rather, to behave in a righteous and holy manner.
A casual reading of these chapters may look like nothing more than a list of "do's and don't's" but the admonition as a whole is telling the believer that his behavior should be startlingly different from that of the world around him. The believer has a new nature--one that constantly should be seeking to please the Lord.
The unredeemed nature of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9.) Most people in any culture are not believers (Matthew 7: 13-14, the narrow way) and the popular traditions and customs will rarely be Christian. The culture of the unredeemed man will be based upon lies and deception because the unredeemed people (the majority) follow Satan, who is the father of lies, rather than following the Lord Jesus, Who is the Truth (John 14:6).
In practical application the question arises: how can a true believer participate in any way in the occult, the dark practices identified with Satan? The most obvious practice this month (October) is the pagan holiday of Halloween.
Just what is "love of the world?" Is it just a phrase in the Bible with no meaning to it? Cannot the Christian community even take a stand against Halloween, an obviously occultic holiday? Imagine having to answer to the Lord Jesus about taking part in an event that is known as the biggest day of the year for worshiping Satan!
In practical application the question arises: how can a true believer participate in any way in the occult, the dark practices identified with Satan? The most obvious practice this month (October) is the pagan holiday of Halloween.
Why do Christians try to find a way to celebrate this occult holiday and somehow make their actions Biblically acceptable? Some may respond that they only do the "fun" things and not the scary things. What then is the lesson of First Corinthians 8 and 10, where Paul advises believers not to participate in eating meat sacrificed to idols? The admonition there does not stem from the meat itself being tainted, but from the affiliation with pagans in a practice of idol-worship (which is demon-worship).
A similar lesson is reflected in the Old Testament, where syncretistic ( mixed) worship led to forsaking God altogether. In Numbers 25 (and 31:16) Balaam, a wicked prophet, advises a foreign king in a scheme to overcome the Hebrews: have the foreign, pagan women entice the Hebrew men to engage in sexual immorality with them; then the men, in order to please the women, joined them in their idolatrous practices. This effort at mixing paganism with true worship failed (as it always does) and soon the men had forsaken their own God completely.
Compromise in the area of purity, righteousness, holiness and truth constitutes "friendship with the world" and puts a person at "enmity" with God (James 4:4). If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Rather than looking for loopholes that seem to permit the Christian to have "fun" with the pagans, why doesn't the Christian seek to behave in a manner that glorifies God?
Just what is "love of the world?" Is it just a phrase in the Bible with no meaning to it? Cannot the Christian community even take a stand against Halloween, an obviously occultic holiday? Imagine having to answer to the Lord Jesus about taking part in an event that is known as the biggest day of the year for worshiping Satan!
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